Beer of the Bass

[quote name='Gottastopbuyinggear' timestamp='1488662954' post='3250946'] I wouldn't rule out the Ampeg PF500. The issues were sorted out a few years ago, so as long as you pick up a relatively recent one then you should be okay. Mine is a couple of years old and has worked flawlessly. They go for relatively low amounts second hand too, so you could probably justify keeping the MB200 as well. Another possibility would be a GK 700RB - there was one for sale on here recently. [/quote] Since I first posted I've used the PF500 as a house rig and didn't like it much, but that may have been the cab. It was one of those Ampeg 4x10" cabs that seems to have a big hole in the high mid response between the 10"s and tweeter, just where I want to hear some clank and grind. It's entirely possible I'd like it better with my own cabs though. Things like the GK 700RB could definitely tempt me if one comes up at the right price at the right time. As it is, I can take my time over things, as my gigs for the next couple of months will either be in a place where it's easier to use the house rig or in another venue that should be relatively low volume. I've also got an 80 watt Dynacord valve amp I want to explore the possibilities of a little more, though I reckon the useful volume from that will be about on a par with the MB200.

[quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1488637340' post='3250677'] I learned using that Jim Gregory book too... [/quote] I had that book too, or it might have been my brother.

I had one of those Kay guitars above with the built-in effects for a while. I found it very cheaply secondhand, played it until the novelty wore off then listed it on eBay where it fetched about £100 more than I'd paid. The effects are hilarious - most settings are variations of a crap muddy modulated wah/tremolo sound, plus a very crude fuzz. If you balanced the bypass switch between on and off it would set up a feedback loop around the effects circuit and give you theremin-esque oscillation that you could adjust the pitch and tone of with the knobs and switches. Kind of fun in a way!

That's odd, while I've never owned one I've played through that version of the SVT and there was definitely some good-sounding preamp grit available with the gain high and the master low. My passive J pickups are probably lower output than your Thunderbird too. I suspect an unhealthy amp.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1488572275' post='3250238'] It's of far less concern than no load. That's why Fender amps used a switched main speaker jack to short the output transformer secondary when there was no speaker plugged into it. As for low impedance loads, when we were young and stupid we'd run Fenders with 1 ohm loads that never bothered them a bit. [/quote] Yes, the 60s/70s Fender amps (and similar designs) are quite robust in that respect. Not knowing what the OP's amp is, or the amp of anyone else reading this, it is sensible to urge some caution. Not all amps use the same topology as Fender, in terms of plate voltage, primary impedance and biasing. Just as an example, I have a Dynacord Eminent II which runs a pair of EL34 at unusually high plate voltage, and I have heard of more than one case of the increased dissipation from a short or lowered impedance causing the valves to fail and take out components around them when they do so.

[quote name='Osiris' timestamp='1488568893' post='3250197'] Thanks for the help everyone. I have 2 different cabs, one is a 600 watt, 4 ohm, 2x12 and the other is a 300 watt, 8 ohm 1x12. And I only ever use one or the other - never both together. So using the scenario in my original post, if was to use either cab with a 100 watt all valve amp (using the appropriate output from the amp) then regardless of the cabs nominal impedance, I'd still be getting the full 100 watts through each cab? [/quote] Yes, that's right.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1488562864' post='3250113'] In fact, it's the maximum. The rules with valves are the opposite of SS. Valves aren't even bothered by a short circuit, but they can be toasted when there's no load. [/quote] That's a generalisation that often holds up well enough to use it as a rule of thumb, but doesn't really describe how the amp operates. Output transformer failure is more likely with no load or a higher than intended impedance, but a lower impedance or a short will still run the valves outside of the operating point the designer intended and cause them to limit the current passed. On most amps this won't cause catastrophic failure but it will reduce the power available and change the sound of the amp. Depending on the operating point of the amp it may also increase dissipation, running the valves harder than necessary. The valves in amps which use a triode/pentode "half power" switch can be badly damaged by lowered speaker impedance when running in triode mode, and while that's something of a special case this feature is more common than it used to be. Since valves are considered a consumable and output transformers are expensive to replace, too low a speaker impedance is clearly a safer bet than too high. The extent to which this will reduce the power available depends on how the amp is designed, so without extensive prior knowledge of a particular amp (drawing load lines etc) or enough anecdotal reports of a successful result with that amp, using the intended tap for the nominal impedance of your speakers is the best idea. So "optimum" is a good word, I'd say.

[quote name='bertbass' timestamp='1488558129' post='3250048'] Valve amps have an output transformer with various impedance taps, usually 16, 8 and 4 ohms. You set the impedance to match the cab(s). The full output is available in all impedances. [/quote] +1 Just to add to that for the OP, the impedance marked on the outputs or selector is the optimum load impedance for that tap, not a minimum as is common on solid state amps. It's generally best to stick to that as not all amps tolerate a mismatch equally well.

Does anyone in Scotland remember guitars and basses labelled Hurricane that were sold by Varsity Music in Edinburgh up until some time in the 90s? I've no idea where they came from, I think the shop must have bought a load of them, stuck their own brand stickers on and sold them off over a period of years. My brother had a strat copy that was terrible, and I've seen a few in Edinburgh secondhand shops which have been equally bad - quite the lowest grade of copy that was around at the time. Because the shop still seems to hold onto stock for years, I suspect my brother's strat copy could easily have been a decade or so old when he bought it in the early 90s.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1488543827' post='3249836'] EQ mixing. It's why when you have a two guitar band you often get the volume wars where neither can hear themselves or each other. [/quote] It [i]can[/i] work with two similar sounding instruments and setups, but in that case the roles of the two guitars need to be carefully thought out, like Television for instance.

There is a friend's band I used to regularly dep with, as their regular bassist had a nasty break to his arm and was out of action for quite a while. They offered me a set rate per gig, which seemed reasonable. On some gigs they made less than that, on a couple they probably made more, so I think it was fair enough. It was a very strange experience depping for a guy who came to most of the gigs though!

That's a pleasingly clear set of drawings, and it looks like you should be able to get a pair of them out of a standard sized sheet of ply too. Is there a typo in the side panel size though? It looks like it says 510mm while the baffle and back are 540mm, or is it a combination of the image resolution and me not having my glasses on?

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1488539528' post='3249760'] I was mostly talking about "being told what to play" type of comments. If it is about the way an instrument sounds, then I'm open to discussion, why not. I have also encouraged a guy to go back to using a strat rather than the Les Paul he was borrowing, because I thought it fitted much better. Others did too, and in the end the guy thought "yeah, it's true" and is again using a strat. It's ok to suggest, why not? I never would bully him into dropping the Les Paul, but I speak my mind and expect others to do the same. [/quote] Multi-guitar bands are a special case when it comes to instrument choice IMO. A friend's band added another guitarist a couple of years ago to free up the singer from playing guitar so much. The existing guitarist was playing a strat style guitar, and when the new guy started he was playing a tele. I saw them live like this a few times and felt like the mix was never quite right. Then last year, the second guitarist changed to an SG and everything seemed to fit together much better. One guitarist is playing a strat into a clean amp and fuzz pedal, the other is playing an SG with a bit of overdrive, the two sounds don't tread on each others toes and each has its own distinct role. But apparently he'd always fancied the SG and didn't have to be nudged in that direction. Conversely, in the one-guitar band I play in, no-one seems to bat an eyelid whether I bring the jazzmaster or 335 type guitar, but oddly I get comments when changing my echo box...

I think the Kay Sound Fashion amps deserve a place in this thread. Wretched, wretched things!

Some of the 80s Hondo stuff was nice enough, I have a Hondo Revival 335 style guitar which is well built and IMO better than some of the current Epiphone offerings.

Their product naming gets confusing. The older "250 watt" Reidmar had the reputation of being loud for it's rating, and I have no idea if this is intended to be the same output as that was or more...

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1488360464' post='3248152'] good to know, thanks. I've heard only good things of this place by Haymarket, where Colorsound Studios are, by the Thrifty Car Rental shop, I forget the name... something about time travel (???). That's what I intend to use next time I need anything done. [/quote] Those guys have since moved.... to Leith! Not certain if Krispn is talking about the same place, but there aren't a lot of repairers in town who are working from their own premises like that.

FWIW I think most of the wooden based archtop bridges are intended to sit rather higher than the stud-mounted tune-o-matic found on an ES335 does. So fitting a floating wooden bridge might require making one from scratch or cutting it down quite extensively.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1488367932' post='3248262'] [Pedant alert] The WEM Westminster was never a bass combo - I reckon you're confusing it with the WEM Dominator. The standard Dommie with a 12" speaker could just about be used for bass, but the Dominator 25 with a 15" speaker was actually designed to handle bass. [/ Pedant alert]. [/quote] There was a Westminster Bass model, one of the black 70s ones. Not much of a bass amp, but it was called one.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1488367780' post='3248257'] How anyone can remember what bloody lead they used is quite beyond me! [/quote] I think I can only remember because it's still around and working, though it's relegated to being a spare now.

[quote name='radiophonic' timestamp='1488366824' post='3248249'] Laney Linebackers, Peavy TNTs, Carlsboro, Westone. HH. Seems like yesterday. Jumpers as goalposts eh? Old starter gear was [i]so[/i] heavy even when it was terrible. [/quote] I used to put my Selmer head in a big rucksack and lug it down to the bus stop, 10 mile bus journey then over the Cal Mac ferry to Gourock each weekend to rehearse. Fortunately the drummer had an old PA cab that I could plug it into, though I did take the cab over a couple of times. I would have loved some of the compact setups that are around now!

[quote name='radiophonic' timestamp='1488354701' post='3248086'] I'm wearing some absolutely terrible surf shorts and I'm easily the least 'metal' person in the room. [/quote] We need to expand this to what people wore for their first gig! I suspect for most of us that would provide as good a snapshot of the times as the bass setup does. For me (in 1996) it was a pair of those African dyed cotton trousers they used to sell to climbers at Tiso and an almost fluoro green t-shirt. I can't remember what the shoes were, but I wore Doc Martens a lot. Long hair tied back, no facial hair because I was 15.

I think it would have been 1996, Queens Hotel in Dunoon and a couple of bars in Gourock and Greenock that I was several years too young to be in. I had a fretless Hohner Jazz copy (white with a tortoiseshell guard), a Selmer Treble n' Bass 50 SV and a really bad 1x15" made out of the shell of an HH guitar combo with a new baffle and the cheapest 15" driver from Maplin. Also a Zoom 506 for a while. The only part of that I have today is a green Klotz cable which is still going.

K&K have a demo of their Definity pickup slipped under an ordinary tune-o-matic on a 335 type guitar; kksound.com/products/definity.php If you want a piezo sound out of your 335, that might be a lot less work than fitting a wooden bridge. Plus, there was one in the double bass section of the classifieds for a good price.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1488213004' post='3246848'] Sensitivity can be compensated for with EQ. The point of four drivers is low frequency capacity. Above 500Hz or so even a single ten can cover a good sized room. [/quote] That makes sense. That 500Hz-1K range is usually easy to adjust with EQ without compromising headroom (unlike the low end).